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Forbes Earnings Preview: PPG Industries

Wall Street is expecting higher profit for PPG Industries (PPG) when the company reports its fourth quarter results on Monday, January 14, 2013. The consensus estimate is calling for profit of $1.54 a share, a rise from $1.30 per share a year ago.

Despite not changing over the past month, the consensus estimate is down from three months ago when it was $1.56. For the fiscal year, analysts are projecting earnings of $7.94 per share. Revenue is projected to be $3.59 billion for the quarter, 2.1% above the year-earlier total of $3.52 billion. For the year, revenue is projected to roll in at $15.16 billion.

While the company has been profitable for the last eight quarters, income has fallen year-over-year by an average of 18.4% over the past four quarters. The biggest drop came in the first quarter, when profit dipped by 94.3%.

Revenue has dropped in the past two quarters. Revenue dropped by 0.1% year-over-year to $3.85 billion in third quarter. The quarter before that, revenue dropped 0.8%.

The majority of analysts (68.8%) rate PPG as a buy. This compares favorably to the analyst ratings of its nearest seven competitors, which average 44% buys. Analysts have become more optimistic about the stock recently and the number of buy ratings has risen slightly over the past three months. Consequently, over the past quarter the stock price has increased from $115.46 on October 11, 2012 to $140.23.

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